Since the early 1960s there has been a considerable increase in formalised investment analysis in the UK. This can partly be evidenced by the growth in the membership of the Society of Investment Analysts, the major professional body for practising analysts, whose numbers have grown from 100 in 1955 to 590 in 1962 and to 1,600 in July 1973. Prior to 1960 there were very few full time analysts in the employment of brokers and investment institutions.